Ann Kirkpatrick, Paul Gosar: Congress’s Arizona odd couple

Kirkpatrick and Gosar have teamed up on more than a half-dozen bills. | AP Photos

If anything, Gosar’s aides are proud of the work he’s doing with Kirkpatrick, and particularly of one bill that would clear the way to open a copper mine in an economically devastated part of the state.

“This is an example of what people from outside of D.C. have been asking for,” Fogel said. “For him, he’ll do what’s right for constituents, not the NRCC or [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee].”

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For the record, Fogel said, Gosar plans to endorse Kirkpatrick’s Republican opponent in 2014. In 2012, he aggressively supported her GOP rival, Jonathan Paton, even hitting the campaign trail. (“She’s still the same person who voted for and supported Obamacare,” Fogel said.)

Carmen Gallus, Kirkpatrick’s chief of staff, said the congresswoman plans to run in 2014 as a consensus-builder — and that her work with Gosar would be part of the narrative.

“She’s always been about the bipartisan angle,” Gallus said. “In general, this fits in with the type of representative she wants to be and what type of legacy she wants to leave.”

Gallus said she’s well aware of the complaints about Gosar from within his party.

“We certainly hear rumblings of frustration. You know the rumor mill in D.C.,” she said. “But I think that pales in comparison to what people in Arizona and the district want to see. It’s refreshing to see people who have different philosophies work together.”

In a Congress where Democrats and Republicans typically don’t get along on, well, just about anything, Gosar and Kirkpatrick, both of whom hail from Flagstaff, are an exception. They connected shortly after Kirkpatrick won in November 2012 and decided to work together on legislation. Since that time, their staffs have become close, working in tandem on Arizona-centered legislation.

They’ve joined forces on everything from naming a post office and veteran’s center to legislation to aid Arizonans hurt by a surveying error that placed their homes within the boundaries of a national forest. And when Gosar held a memorial for the firefighters who died in the Yarnell fire, Kirkpatrick attended.

Arizona lawmakers have spent years trying to get the copper mine legislation passed — Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake have introduced a corresponding measure in the Senate — but it’s run into resistance from environmentalists and Native American groups. In 2010, Gosar attacked Kirkpatrick for failing to get the mine legislation — which would authorize a federal land swap with Resolution Copper Mining Co. so the firm could open a 7,000-foot-deep mine — approved.

Given the potential economic benefits of the mine — proponents say it would create thousands of jobs — not all Republicans have a problem with Gosar working alongside Kirkpatrick.

“My reaction is I’m very pleased to see them working hand in hand,” said Mike Stites, the president of the SaddleBrooke Republican Club, one of the most prominent GOP groups in the state. “And it’s a good example for Congress.”